Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,816 discloses a vehicle headlamp with a bulb in a reflector, in which two LCD matrices are positioned and which is terminated by a lens. The LCD matrices are used as shading devices, in that they are controllable to absorb desired parts of a light beam to be emitted by the headlamp. Furthermore, the headlamp may comprise a pivotable shading member, with a similar function.
A disadvantage of the known vehicle lamp is that it has a limited and variable efficiency, in that a varying, but relatively large part of the light is absorbed by the shading member(s).
In the near future, vehicle lighting that use headlamps with different settings for different conditions, often referred to as ‘Adaptive Frontlighting System’ or AFS, will be allowed. It is noted that there are regulations for beams and other properties of vehicle lamps, both in general and for AFS in particular. With the current available technology, creating these different settings is only possible with multiple reflector/lamp combinations and rotatable lamp-reflector combinations. Obviously this is expensive and bulky.